In a computer system that is multi-threaded or multi-programmed, and that utilizes cache memory, upon each context switch made by the operating system, one thread or process is swapped out of cache and another is swapped into cache. When this occurs, the cache is generally re-populated only as the new thread or process references its data. Thus, after such a context switch, the new thread or process generally incurs a high frequency of cache misses.
Furthermore, in a computer system that supports multiple outstanding cache misses, but which stalls on the first use of data being loaded, re-populating cache only as a new thread or process references its data may result in ineffectual use of all available bandwidth.